Facebook... now I'll go on record as saying I'm not the biggest fan. It's pretty impossible to deny your work colleagues "friend request" when they are sitting opposite you staring and asking, "Have you got it yet?" And as soon as you hit that "Accept" button you just know that one Monday they are going to see pictures, or video of you doing a nude run around the pool table in the pub because your cue action is about as straight as Waylon Smithers!
However for the storage of these hundreds of photos with my pants around my ankles Facebook is saving grace. And it was looking through these photos that reminded me of what it means to be a Freo supporter!
The scene is New Years Eve in Edinburgh and the Hogmany Festival and Street Party. I've got the Freo jumper on and have received a spattering of positive and negative banter throughout the night. After all the festivities and fireworks have finished. Myself, the girlfriend and her partner in crime were starting the walk home. I use the term walk very loosely as the girlfriend and her friend had really gone for it and were doing their best impressions of Stagger Ben Stagger. In an attempt to get them home before sun-up, and that is a long time in Edinburgh in January, and also to avoid them getting hit by oncoming traffic, I had each one draped over each arm and was clearly doing it pretty tough.
With the finishing line still a fair way away, we cross an intersection to be met by a lone Eagle supporter, who greets my arrival by bursting into a rendition of "We're the E-Girls". Not in the mood for this I kept walking with girls still draped, without acknowledging his existence to which Mr Eagle didn't take to kindly, and proceeded to launch into me with a barrage of foul-mouthed abuse. I have to admit the temptation was there to pop the girls lightly down on the pavement before popping him on the pavement a little harder, however being the bigger man, and wanting to keep the nice bit of momentum we had going, we just kept our slow amble up the street until Mr Eagle got bored of following us not receiving any sort of response and he eventually left us alone.
A little further down and with the flat in sight, we walk past a pub. The next thing I know we are wrapped up in a tackle Troy Cook would be proud of from someone running out the pub doors! I'm wondering what the hell is going on until a gent by the name of James introduces himself saying he saw a fellow Freo supporter doing it tough and wanted to know if I needed some help, and more importantly if I needed a beer. Too bloody right I did, this had been bloody thirsty work. So for the early hours of 2008 I spent chatting all things Freo with a bloke I'd been tackled by just minutes before.
Looking back at these photos has made me think, that for all the success and money that people may have, you just cannot buy class! I love the Fremantle Football Club and it's supporters and I just want to thank you all for making my club exactly what it is! I believe in the philosophy that it is the supporters who make a club and I think each and every one of us can be very very proud! I can feel in that our day is coming! That last day in September!
And when that day comes, James, I owe you a beer old son!